How to Establish Your Offline Presence

You’ve probably heard how important it is to establish your online presence.

Get a blog or a website. Get on Facebook and Twitter and master this thing called social media.

Be remarkable. Go viral. Put yourself out there.

The truth is I’d agree with all that. I love the internet. I’ve met so many cool and interesting people because of it. I love my blogs. I love Twitter and Facebook. I even like email when I use it well.

But having had the chance to take a week away from my ultra connected, incredibly plugged in digital existence and return to a quieter, simpler analogue one, I’ve rediscovered the joy of establishing my offline presence as well.

Old Fashioned Things Make Me Feel Brand New

Call me outdated, but I find inspiration in taking old fashioned walks, writing in my old fashioned journal with an old fashioned ink pen, reading an old fashioned thing called a book, and spending time with an old fashioned thing called real live people.

You see, those were the kinds of things that propelled me on my mildly creative journey. How funny it is to discover they still work. I think I’m finally learning to use technology with a purpose, and the way I’m doing that is by purposely taking time away from it.

How to Establish Your Very Own Offline Presence

If you’d like to establish your own offline presence, here are a few tips to help you do so.

1. Put a limit on the amount of time you spend online.

Of course, this will depend somewhat upon the type of work you do, but even the most net dependent people can benefit from having a clear timeline for logging on and logging off. It heightens focus and eliminates the tendency to become distracted and wander into the land of wasted time.

2. Have a clear idea of why you’re logging on in the first place.

I have to confess that for a while I was logging on for no good reason. I just had this notion that I needed to be online or at least in front of my computer doing something, anything. Maybe I was afraid my blog would disappear. Who knows?

But once I started limiting the time I spend before my computer screen, I also started thinking about what I wanted to accomplish when my fingers hit the keyboard. I can safely say the time I now spend online is far more productive and enjoyable than it was when I was mindlessly clicking away.

So before you grab your mouse again, ask yourself a simple question. Why?

3. Spend some time outdoors.

Sunlight in proper doses is good for you. It helps you synthesize Vitamin D, and not getting enough increases your risk of cancer.

Besides, getting away from the office and even your home makes it easier to forget about your worries for a time. It frees your mind to think of other things and that’s how a lot of problems get solved, by temporarily leaving them alone.

4. Learn to do something that doesn’t require a plug in.

Draw. Paint. Sculpt. Do math problems with a pencil. Write in a notebook. Play an acoustic guitar. Garden. Do woodwork with self powered tools.

I think there’s no better way to establish presence, real presence, the kind that enables you to really notice the small but beautiful details of your world than to engage in an activity that requires no outlets, no wires, and even no batteries.

So much of our life is accelerated and amplified. It can be empowering, mentally stimulating, and incredibly relaxing to do something that depends solely on a few manual tools and the use of your own abilities.

You get to use and develop your physical strength, your mental acuity, and your ability to observe, reflect, and synthesize. This is a good thing.

An online presence is a good thing to establish, but by creating an offline one as well, I think you’ll find your online persona will be far more interesting and engaging. You’ll be more than just a brand or a name. You’ll be human, and that’s something even the online crowd can relate to.

Here’s Something Useful to Do While You’re Online

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